New A-Levels re-ignite pass rate row

The anxious wait for A-Level grades is ending for this year's school leavers as the row over whether the exam has become too easy re-ignited.

Record-breaking pass rates were being driven by sixth formers abandoning hard courses such as maths and modern languages for so-called "soft" subjects including psychology and media studies, headteachers warned.

The Government's exam watchdog rejected the charge, saying there was no such thing as an "easy A-Level" but the furore threatened to overshadow what was shaping up to be a triumphant day for many young people.

The pass rate rose for the 21st year in a row and the Secondary Heads Association said there was a need to ensure all subjects were equally difficult, as it was "statistically proven" that some were more demanding than others. Prince Harry achieved a Grade B for art and a Grade D for geography in his A-Level exams, St James's Palace said.

SHA general secretary John Dunford warned the nation's future prosperity could be at stake if something was not done to ensure more people took subjects including maths, physics and modern languages.

He was speaking as figures from the main exam boards in England, Wales and Northern Ireland showed that for the first time fewer than one entry in 20 was judged a failure.

The A-Level pass rate rose by 1.1% from 94.3% to 95.4%. The proportion awarded A-grades increased 0.9% to 21.6% from 20.7%.

However, although the AS-Level pass rate rose slightly from 86.5% to 86.7%, the proportion of entries awarded grades A to D fell. The headline provisional figures produced by the Joint Council for General Qualifications (JCGQ), representing the exam boards, showed boys continued to lag behind girls across all qualifications.

This year's exams were taken under the shadow of the events of autumn 2002, when confusion about the standards of work expected at AS and A2 lead to problems with marking that eventually saw almost 2,000 students get better grades. The furore led the inquiry into what went wrong chaired by former chief schools inspector Mike Tomlinson to recommend a series of reforms designed to prevent a repeat. He was put in charge of checking that the boards stuck to the new rules and today he confirmed that students could be confident their exams had been properly marked.

The Government will be relieved that the exam system does not appear to have sprung a leak this year.